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COMMEMORATIVE  OF  THE  LATE 

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DELIVEUED  IN  THE 

(‘HAPEL  OF  THE  COLLEGE  OF  NEW  JERSEY 
BY  REQUEST  OF  THE  PRESIDENT, 
OCTOBER  13th, 
and  REPEATED  IN  THE 
FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH, 
PRINCETON, 

AT  THE  REQUEST  OF  ITS  SESSION, 
OCTOBER  20th.  1878, 


BY 


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LYMAN  H.  ATWATER. 


PRINCETON : 

CHARLES  S.  ROBINSON,  PRINTER. 

1878. 


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[■{.Ev.  Dr.  Atwater. 


Princeton,  N.  J.,  October  26,  1878. 


Dear  Sir  : — At  a  meeting  of  the  congregation  of  the  First  Church  held 
immediately  after  the  delivery  of  your  discourse  commemorative  of  Dr.  Hodge, 
we  were  appointed  a  committee  to  request  from  you  a  copy  for  publication. 
We  earnestly  hope  that  you  will  comply  with  this  request. 

W.  Henry  Green, 

H.  C.  Cameron, 

J.  H.  WiKOFF, 

Edward  Howe. 


Princeton,  Oct.  28.  1878. 

Rev.  Dr.  Green  and  others.  Committee. 

Gentlemen  : — It  gives  me  pleasure  to  comply  with  the  request  of  the 
congregation  of  the  First  Church,  tendered  through  you,  and  to  furnish  a 
copy  of  the  Discourse  referred  to  for  publication. 

Yours,  with  high  regard. 


LYMAN  H.  ATWATER. 


DISCOURSE. 


Psalm  xxxvii  :  37. — Mark  the  perfect  man,  and  behold  the 
upright ;  for  the  end  of  that  man  is  peace. 

The  festivities  of  our  last  Annual  Commencement, 
in  many  of  their  features  unusually  gratifying  to  the 
friends  of  the  College,  and  of  high  Christian  education, 
were  deeply  shadowed  at  their  close  by  the  death  of 
Charles  Hodge.  His  funeral  obsequies  formed  the 
last  public  exercises  of  that  otherwise  festive  week, 
and  were  attended  during  the  waning  hours  of 
its  last  day,  by  a  large  concourse  from  this  and  other 
places  eager  to  honor  his  memory.  “  Devout  men 
carried  him  to  his  burial  and  made  pfreat  lamentation 
over  him  “  sorrowing  most  of  all  that  they  should 
see  his  face  no  more,”  and  that  “  a  prince  and  a  great 
man  in  Israel  had  fallen.” 

As  was  meet,  his  body  was  reverently  and  tenderly 
laid  by  sons  and  nephews  in  its  last  resting  place  amid 
the  sepulchres  of  the  men  who  have  made  Princeton 
famous,  and  added  renown  to  our  country  in  letters, 
statesmanship,  and  above  all,  in  the  vindication  and 
propagation  of  the  Christian  faith.  There  may  he 
sleep  in  peace  with  Edwards,  Davies,  Witherspoon, 
Dod,  Miller,  the  Alexanders,  and  others  scarcely  less 
illustrious,  whom  we  cannot  stop  to  name,  till  awaked 
by  the  voice  of  the  Archangel,  and  the  trump  of  God, 
to  the  resurrection  of  glory. 


6 


It  is  scarcely  an  exaggeration  to  say,  that  of  the 
great  and  good  men  whose  lives  have  adorned  and 
whose  deaths  have  shrouded  this  town,  none  in  all  its 
annals  have,  as  related  to  Princeton,  on  the  whole,  filled 
so  large  a  space  in  their  lives  or  made  so  large  a  void 
by  their  death.  This  is  not  saying  that  none  others 
connected  with  one  or  the  other  of  the  institutions 
here  have  been  endowed  with  equal  might  of  intellect, 
depth  of  piety,  zeal  for  God  and  truth,  which  have 
made  them  sig^nal  blessino-s  to  the  church  and  the 
world,  and  enabled  them  also  to  produce  works  of 
world-wide  and  immortal  fame  which  are  still  their 
monuments.  I  myself  have  heard  Dr.  Hodge  say  of 
a  junior  colleague,  a  very  prodigy  of  sanctified  genius 
cut  down  in  his  prime,  when  he  had  already  acquired 
celebrity  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  what  many  others 
would  heartily  concur  in  :  “I  regard  Dr.  Joseph  Addi¬ 
son  Alexander  as  incomparably  the  greatest  man  I 
ever  knew,  incomparably  the  greatest  man  our  church 
has  ever  produced.”  But  none  of  them  were  so 
favored  both  with  that  felicitous  combination  of  gifts, 
aptitudes,  and  more  than  all.  opportunities  which  not 
only  made  him  great  among  the  foremost  of  his  gene¬ 
ration,  but  also  so  remarkably  identified  that  greatness 
with  Princeton. 

Although  born  in  Philadelphia,  the  whole  of  his  long 
life  after  his  early  childhood  was  spent  here,  save  a 
year  or  two  of  absence  in  Europe  to  prepare  for  his 
professorship  in  our  Theological  Seminary.  Here  he 
received  a  considerable  part  at  least  of  his  preparation 
for  our  College  which  he  entered  in  1812,  in  his  15th 
year,  having  been  born  Dec.  28,,  1797.  Thus  at  his 
death  he  had  lived  out  half  his  eighty-first  year,  very 
nearly  three  score  and  ten  of  which,  or  the  ordinary  full 
age  of  man,  had  been  passed  in  this  place,  and  nearly 


7 


the  whole  of  it  in  close  connection  with  the  Institutions 
on  which  he  shed  lustre,  and  which  give  to  Prince¬ 
ton  its  renown.  He  graduated  at  the  College  with  the 
highest  honor  in  1815 — a  distinction  easily  won,  not  by 
indolence,  not  by  irregular  and  fitful  efforts,  now  inter¬ 
mitted  and  now  overstrained,  but  by  that  steady,  nor¬ 
mal  application  which  was  in  a  sense  spontaneous  and 
almost  effortless  to  his  mighty  intellect.  Then,  as 
afterwards,  he  worked  not  so  much  for  the  worldly 
honor  which  follows  duty  as  the  shadow  follows  the 
substance,  but  simply  that  he  might  do  what  ought  to 
be  done  in  order  to  that  knowledge  and  culture  which 
conscience  enjoins  as  the  true  end  of  study.  Here  he 
lived  and  died.  Here  he  trained  thousands  to  be  able 
to  teach  others  also  in  the  sacred  ministry.  Here  he 
prepared  those  publications  which,  whether  in  a  periodi¬ 
cal  or  more  permanent  form,  exerted  at  the  time  a 
prodigious  influence  upon  the  church  and  the  world,  in 
this  land,  throughout  Christendom,  and  in  those  ends 
of  the  earth  penetrated  by  missionaries,  many  of  which 
still  live  and  will  continue  to  live,  some  of  them  through 
the  centuries.  At  his  death  he  had  come  to  be  nearly 
the  oldest,  and  quite  the  most  illustrious  of  the  gradu¬ 
ates  of  the  College  ;  the  oldest,  most  distinguished, 
and  while  his  vigor  was  yet  unabated,  the  most  influen¬ 
tial  of  her  trustees.  By  the  great  length  of  his  bril¬ 
liant  career,  and  that  career  wholly  in  this  town,  in¬ 
cluding  more  than  a  half  century  of  unceasing  authorship 
of  productions  honored  over  the  entire  globe  and  of 
cumulative  fame  and  influence,  he  had  opportunities 
which  others,  whose  lives  were  cut  short  in  their  merid¬ 
ian,  or  if  not  so,  were  spent  only  in  part  here,  however 
otherwise  his  equals,  had  not,  to  make  Princeton 
known  in  this  and  other  lands  as  a  centre  of  thought 
and  power  in  the  literary  and  religious  world. 


8 


Early  in  his  senior  college  year  he,  with  a  class¬ 
mate,  made  a  profession  of  religion  in  the  First,  then 
the  only  Presbyterian  Church  in  Princeton,  where  he 
continued  to  commune  for  63  years,  accompanied  or 
followed  in  due  time  by  his  children  and  children’s 
children.  This  is  noteworthy  here,  because  at  that 
time  there  were  few  professors  of  religion  in  the  Col¬ 
lege.  Many  students  were  even  found  to  be  destitute 
of  Bibles.  These  had  to  be  su  pplied  to  them  by  the  N as- 
sau  Bible  Society,  so  fashionable  were  scepticism  and 
scoffing  among  the  young  men  of  that  day.  This  step 
illustrated  the  courage  and  decision  of  character  which 
were  characteristic  of  his  after  life,  and  formed  one 
great  source  of  his  influence.  It  was  the  outcome  under 
God  of  the  Christian  training  and  nurture  given  him 
by  his  admirable  mother,  who,  left  a  widow  while  he 
and  his  brother  Hugh  were  yet  infants,  had  so  brought 
them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord, 
that  to  pray  became  as  natural  to  the  young  Charles 
as  to  breathe,  and  that  therein  he,  as  he  has  said, 
seemed  to  himself  in  boyhood  to  be  talking  with  God 
as  a  father  and  friend.  He  always,  like  all  truly  noble 
men,  especially  if  fatherless,  ascribed  all  in  himself 
that  was  of  any  worth  either  in  the  sight  of  God  or 
man,  instrumentally  to  the  influence  of  this  excellent 
Christian  mother.  And  if  she  was  a  blessinor  so  in- 

o 

estimable  to  her  sons,  might  it  not  have  been  the  pride 
of  the  most  royal  mother  on  earth  to  have  borne  and 
reared  two  such  sons  as  Charles  and  Hugh  L.  Hodge, 
the  latter  the  beloved  Christian  physician,  and  great 
medical  professor  and  author?  When  was  the  aspira¬ 
tion  more  beautifully  realized,  so  happily  expressed  by 
Wordsworth  in  the  lines, 

‘‘  The  child  is  father  of  the  man, 

And  I  could  wish  my  days  to  be 
Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety.” 


9 


Still  another  reason  why  his  profession  of  religion 
at  this  time  deserves  notice  here  is,  that  it  was  followed 
by  the  great  religious  revival  of  1815  in  the  College, 
which  broke  the  spell  of  indifferentism,  irreligion  and 
infidelity,  that  had  so  long  struck  its  leprous  taint 
through  the  institution.  It  changed  the  whole  tone 
here  for  the  better  in  these  respects.  Its  subjects  in¬ 
cluded  some  of  the  chief  luminaries  of  the  American 
Church  in  various  communions.  Bishops  Johns  and 
McIlvaine  of  the  Episcopal  Church  were  among 
them.  They  were  also  life-long  friends  of  Dr. 
Hodge,  whose  catholic  sympathies  and  friendship 
warmly  embraced  all  true  Christians,  whether  within  or 
beyond  the  pale  of  his  own  church.  It  deserves  atten¬ 
tion  that  this  revival  was  consequent  upon  his  making 
this  profession,  because  there  is  no  way  in  which  those 
who  possess  religion  in  college  or  elsewhere  can  do 
greater  good,  than  by  professing  it  and  adorning  their 
profession.  It  has  often  been  among  the  first  fruits, 
foretokenings,  or  predisposing  causes  of  genuine  re¬ 
vivals,  that  those  who  at  heart  love  Christ  let  their 
light  shine  in  visible  profession  and  holy  example  more 
conspicuously  than  ever  before.  God  alone  knows  how 
much  that  great  revival  of  1815  in  this  College  may 
have  been  instrumentally  due  to  the  open  and  formal 
profession  of  religion  by  Charles  Hodge,  at  a  time 
when  iniquity  abounded,  the  love  of  many  waxed  cold, 
and  the  very  atmosphere  was  murky  with  spiritual 
death. 

While  yet  a  college  lad,  his  extraordinary  promise 
was  observed  by  that  great  light  of  our  church,  and 
sagacious  discerner  of  men.  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander, 
who  even  then  fixed  upon  him  for  the  chair  of  Biblical 
Instruction  and  Exegesis  about  to  be  established  in  the 
Seminary.  Dr.  Alexander  discerned  in  him  not  only 


the  average  proniise  which  results  from  a  foremost 
rank  in  a  college  class,  but  those  special  endowments 
which  foretokened  his  ripening  into  eminent  fitness 
for  a  theological  professorship.  In  one  of  the  only  two 
interviews  which  I  ever  had  with  that  wonderful  man, 
he  said  to  me  that  Dr.  Hodge’s  mind  resembled  Cal¬ 
vin’s  in  everything  but  its  sternness.  The  result  was, 
that,  after  spending  three  years  as  a  student  m  the 
Theological  Seminary  from  i8i6  to  1819,  with  a  single 
year  intervening,  he  became  in  1820  Assistant  Teacher 
of  the  Original  Languages  of  Scripture.  Two  years 
later,  at  the  age  of  25.  and  56  years  ago,  the  General 
Assembly  appointed  him  full  professor  of  Oriental  and 
Biblical  Literature.  In  1840  he  was  transferred  from 
this  to  the  Chair  of  Didactic  Theology,  a  department 
for  which  he  had  shown  extraordinary  fitness  m  his 
exegetical  instructions,  and  in  various  publications  that 
evinced  his  power  and  established  his  tame  on  both 
sides  of  the  ocean.  In  this  he  continued  active  to  the 
day  of  his  death,  with  a  duration  and  eminence  ot 
service  having  no  parallel  in  this  age,  and  none  except 
in  cases  the  rarest  among  the  great  theologians  of  his¬ 
tory. — the  Augustines,  the  Anselms,  Calvins,  Turrettins 
and  Edwardses,  those  great  expositors,  formulators,  and 
defenders  of  the  Christian  faith.  He  realized  pre¬ 
eminently  his  own  ideal  of  a  teacher,  which  he  once 
set  forth  to  me  in  one  of  those  sentences  so  character¬ 
istic  of  him,  having  the  power  of  aphorisms  that  m  an 
instant  let  in  a  flood  of  light  upon  a  subject,  and  con¬ 
tain  the  seeds  of  thought;  “The  requisites  of  a  good 
teacher  are  Knowledge,  Ability,  Fidelity  and  Tact, 
adding,  that  “many  who  have  the  first  three,  fail  for 
want  of  the  last.”  Few  have  even  written  and  pub¬ 
lished  so  voluminously.  Fewer  still  have  published  so 
much  which  not  only  exerted  immense  influence  at  the 


time  of  publication,  but  continues  to  have  a  recog¬ 
nized  value  and  authority  for  a  generation  or  more 
afterwards,  including  what  is  likely  to  live  through 
the  ages.  He  made  himself  felt  with  prodigious  power 
in  standard  volumes  historical,  exegetical,  philosophical, 
allcLilminatingin  his  greatworkonSystematicTheology. 
This,  in  the  range  and  completeness  of  its  topics,  its 
mastery  of  the  literature,  the  living  and  past  issues, 
the  collateral  philosophies  and  scientific  questions  per¬ 
taining  to  them,  the  thorough  analysis,  the  clear  and 
adequate  presentation  and  discussion  of  subjects  in¬ 
volved,  is  for  this  age  what  Francis  Turrettin’s  great 
work  was  for  his.  It  has  a  value  which  will  render  it 
long  indispensable  for  all  who  make  theology  a  study, 
even  it  they  be  upholders  of  variant  or  contrary  sys¬ 
tems. 

Not  only  did  he  make  himself  a  great  power  m  the 
standard  treatises  and  volumes  he  gave  to  the  world,  but 
also  in  that  periodical  literature,  which,  during  this  cen¬ 
tury,  has  become  the  great  power  of  the  press.  Ap¬ 
preciating  its  vast  influence,  he  founded  in  1825  the 
Biblical  Repertory,  to  which  he  afterwards  added  the 
title  of  Princeton  Review.  This  he  edited  until  1869. 
During  this  period  of  44  years,  in  which  Quarterly 
Reviews  reached  the  zenith  of  their  influence,  he 
made  this  journal  a  great  power  in  the  church  and 
the  world.  It  is  doubtful  whether  any  other  American 
Quarterly  was  so  powerful  in  impressing  the  opinions  of 
its  conductors  on  those  whose  province  it  is  to  teach 
others  also,  and  through  these,  upon  the  church  and  the 
world,  not  only  on  theological,  but  on  philosophical, 
ethical,  social  and  miscellaneous  topics.  Aided  by  a 
small  galaxy  of  contributors,  each  powerful  and  bril¬ 
liant  in  his  way,  he  was  its  constant  head.  If  great  in 
other  ways,  he  was  conspicuously  great  as  a  Reviewer. 


Some  of  his  salient  articles  would  not  suffer  by  com¬ 
parison  with  Macaulay’s  in  power  and  influence.  The 
church  and  world  will  not  willingly  let  them  die. 

Among  the  topics  upon  which  he  cast  a  powerful 
licrht  in  this  Review  were  the  relation  of  the  Church 
to  Slavery,  on  which  he  took  ground  equi-distant  from 
Pro-slaveryism  on  the  one  hand,  and  those  who  main¬ 
tained  that  slaveholders  as  such  should  be  excluded  from 
the  church  on  the  other;  on  Temperance,  favoring  Total 
Abstinence  as  a  matter  of  expediency,  but  insisting  that 
it  could  not  be  made  a  test  of  Christian  character  or  a 
term  of  communion  ;  in  regard  to  voluntary  societies, 
opposing  alike  those  who  would  commit  to  them  the 
evangelistic  work  of  the  church,  in  preference  to 
church  boards,  and  those  who  would  discountenance 
all  voluntary  associations  for  any  purpose  whatsoever; 
in  regard  to  the  Scriptural  idea  of  the  church,  show¬ 
ing  that  to  the  church  invisible,  consisting  of  all  the 
redeemed,  the  scriptural  definitions,  promises  and 
prerogatives  pertain,  while  they  pertain  to  the  church 
visible,  or  to  any  organized  church,  just  and  only  so  far 
as  it  includes  and  manifests,  makes  the  profession 
and  has  visibly  the  marks  of  the  “  sanctified  in 
Christ  Jesus,  called  to  be  saints,  I.  Cor.  1:2; 
in  regard  to  Scriptural  exegesis,  accepting  all  true 
corrections  of  the  received  version  and  its  inter¬ 
pretation  which  Germany  could  afford,  but  repu¬ 
diating  the  extravagances  and  destructive  rationalism 
which  so  many  were  eagerly  importing  from  that  coun¬ 
try.  In  regard  to  theology,  he  repelled  Pelagian, 
Sabellian,  Socinian,  and  other  rationalistic  assaults 
upon  the  standards  of  his  church,  while  guarding  against 
the  hyper-Calvinism  that  sometimes  provoked  or  pal¬ 
liated  them.  The  field  of  politics  he  entered  only  at 
its  points  of  contact  with  ethical  and  scriptural  doctrine, 


13 

as  Sabbath  observance,  marriage,  divorce,  and  espe¬ 
cially  the  attempt  to  sever  the  country  in  twain  by  force 
of  arms.  Whenever  on  these  or  similar  subjects  a 
nodus  dignus  occurred,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  make  all 
parties  know  his  mind,  and  uttered  no  uncertain  sound. 

These  varied  and  pre-eminent  services  to  the 
church  and  the  world  had  a  remarkable  recoenition  in 
this  place  six  years  ago,  on  the  occasion  of  Dr. 
Hodge’s  reaching  the  semi-centenary  of  his  Professor¬ 
ship  in  the  Seminary.  This  event  was  celebrated  by  a 
vast  assemblage  of  his  pupils,  and  other  clergymen  and 
laymen,  including  distinguished  Professors  and  repre¬ 
sentatives  of  other  institutions,  and  friends  of  relig-ion 
and  learning  in  this  and  other  lands.  These,  with  mul¬ 
titudes  unable  to  come,  were  eager  to  do  him  honor, 
and  make  thankful  and  reverent  acknowledament  of 
his  great  services  to  themselves  personally,  as  well  as 
to  the  church  and  cause  ot  God,  in  defending'  the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints.  This  sacred  ovation  has 
had  no  recent  if  any  parallel,  except  in  the  case  of  a 
similar  tribute  paid  to  the  veteran  theologian  Tholuck 
in  Germany.  It  was  entirely  spontaneous,  and  heart¬ 
felt.  While  gratefully  appreciated  by  the  illustrious 
subject  of  it,  it  drew  forth  from  him  marked  mani¬ 
festations,  not  of  self-complacency,  but  of  unaffected 
humility. 

Let  us  now  consider  that  in  the  make-up  of  this 
great  man  in  view  of  which  it  is  peculiarly  proper  that 
we  should  mark  him  as  the  “  perfect,”  and  behold  him 
as  the  “upright,”  In  his  life  and  death,  for  his  “  end  was 
peace.”  Sinless  perfection  is  not  here  meant.  Infalli¬ 
bility  is  not  meant.  There  is  not  a  just  man  on  earth 
that  sinneth  not.  No  man  would  more  sternly  resent 
the  ascription  of  such  traits  to  himself  But  a  relative 


perfection  is  meant,  consisting  in  the  completeness  and 
symmetrical  adjustment  of  all  the  elements  that  belong 
to  the  highest  manhood,  intellectual,  moral  and 
religious,  and  this  withal  as  respects  their  relations  to 
the  surroundings  of  a  man’s  life,  or,  to  use  a  cur¬ 
rent  word,  his  environment.  He  obeyed  his  conscience 
wherever  it  led  him,  m  all  fealty  to  his  God,  and  faith¬ 
fulness  to  men.  The  attribute  of  being  perfect,  applied 
to  him  peculiarly  in  this  respect,  that  he  was  almost 
unexampled  in  his  freedom  from  those  infirmities 
which  disfigure  and  belittle  so  many  otherwise  great 
men,  when  unveiled  by  intimate  association  with  them. 
His  unusually  long  life  and  opportunities  enhanced  this 
relative  perfection.  Raised  to  high  and  responsible 
stations  at  a  very  early  age,  which  he  honorably  filled, 
he  continued  in  distinguished  and  effective  service  to 
the  end  of  a  life  thus  lengthened  out.  He  lived  too 
when  the  questions  agitating  the  church  and  society, 
and  the  work  needing  to  be  done  to  which  he  was 
called,  furnished  the  grandest  opportunity  for  the  full 
tasking  and  development  of  his  peculiar  gifts,  so  that 
if  he  moulded  the  age,  the  age  moulded  him.  His  life 
and  work  were  fully  finished  and  rounded,  replete  with 
opportunity  well  improved,  without  untimely  ruptures 
or  premature  ending. 

We  proceed  then,  as  briefly  as  may  be,  to  contemplate 
the  intellectual,  moral,  and  religious  constituents  of  the 
man,  along  with  any  auxiliary  accidental  circumstances 
which  drew  forth  this  manhood  to  that  fulness  and 
pre-eminence  by  which  it  was  distinguished. 

H  is  intellect  was  imperial,  even  in  its  single  facul¬ 
ties,  but  much  more  so  in  their  harmonious  blending, 
their  mutual  co-working  and  inter-working,  their  power 
or  habit  of  sustained  application  which  sufficed  to 
develop  without  consuming  them.  At  the  very  thresh- 


15 


old  this  appears  in  the  amount,  excellence  and  influ¬ 
ence  of  his  productions  ;  in  the  clearness,  fulness  and 
vividness  of  his  unfoldings  of  the  profoundest  and 
abstrusest  topics.  To  delineate  his  faculties  separately, 
while  requisite  to  a  full  appreciation  of  them,  never¬ 
theless  has  the  awkward  anatomical  effect  of  severing 
them  from  that  living  connection  with  the  whole  which 
is  so  essential  to  their  beauty  and  power.  It  is  like 
applying  the  prism  to  the  sunbeam.  While  it  shows 
the  colors  of  the  rainbow,  each  beautiful  in  itself,  it  dis¬ 
solves  the  pure  white  light,  not  to  say  heat,  of  the  sun. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  his  mind  was 
intensely  logical,  not  in  the  sense  of  mere  expertness 
in  the  forms  of  the  syllogism, — though  here  he  was  not 
inexpert, — but  as  by  nature  and  training  it  conformed 
to  the  laws  of  rational  thought,  especially  in  their  appli¬ 
cation  to  concrete  discussion  ;  in  analysis  and  synthesis 
as  involved  in  the  processes  of  generalization,  classifi¬ 
cation,  division,  definition  ;  of  discovering  and  setting 
forth  in  crystal  clearness  the  true  question,  eliminating 
irrelevant  issues,  clearing  away  all  perplexing  obscurity, 
indistinctness  and  inadequacy  of  statement  in  which 
less  competent  thinkers  had  involved  it ;  so  arraying  in 
consummate  order  proofs  of  the  position  taken  and 
disproofs  of  the  contrary  as  to  give  his  argument  a 
cumulative  and  resistless  momentum,  which  sufficed  to 
impart  fresh  inspiration  to  friends,  and  either  to  con¬ 
vert  or  weaken  adversaries.  This  result  was  greatly 
furthered  by  the  mingled  earnestness,  candor  and 
charity  with  which  he  inculcated  his  views,  and  which 
were  sterling  traits  in  his  character. 

It  should  be  said,  however,  that  he  was  no  man  of 
mere  logic,  engrossed  with  bare  forms  or  arts  of  think¬ 
ing,  without  matter  to  think  about,  or  staples  from  which 
to  hang  his  chains  of  argument.  No  man  ever  more 


maenified  those  intuitions,  or  intuitive  truths  and  con- 
victions,,  which  constitute  the  essence  of  reason,  and 
only  basis  of  reasoning.  I  have  known  men  of  even 
superlative  acumen  most  expert  as  logical  fencers,  but 
extremely  slow  in  recognizing  those  intuitive  principles 
without  which  no  sound  reasoning  is  possible  ;  whose 
arguments  shielded  or  pierced  only  the  ghosts  of  truth 
or  error.  Dr.  Hodge  was  especially  quick  to  discern 
moral  and  relieious  axioms — those  first  truths  which 
are  the  light  of  all  our  seeing,  so  shining  in  their  own 
light  that  no  outside  proof  can  make  them  plainer, 
while  they  themselves  underlie  all  moral  or  religious 
truth  reached  by  any  kind  of  demonstration,  testimony 
or  revelation.  That  there  is  a  radical  distinction  be¬ 
tween  right  and  wrong ;  that  love,  reverence,  and  obe¬ 
dience  towards  God,  justice,  kindness,  truth  and  hon¬ 
esty  towards  men  are  binding  ;  that  sin  deserves  pun¬ 
ishment,  and  virtue  approbation  and  reward  ; — these 
propositions  are  their  own  evidence,  or  there  is  no  evi¬ 
dence  for  them  or  any  other  moral  or  religious  princi¬ 
ples.  Revelation  even  presupposes  such  intuitive 
knowledge,  and  would  be  as  impossible  to  those  desti¬ 
tute  of  it,  as  is  the  seeing  of  sun-light  by  the  blind. 
“  If  the  light  that  is  in  thee  be  darkness,  how  great  is 
that  darkness  ?”  How  can  moral  and  religious  truth 
be  disclosed  to  those  without  conscience,  the  first  ele¬ 
ments  of  moral  reason  and  religious  insight? 

Here  too  it  deserves  emphatic  mention  that  his 
intellect  was  remarkably  free  from  that  narrow,  one¬ 
sided  iiltraism  in  pushing  single  truths  to  extreme 
consequences,  which  arises  from  blindness  to  related 
and  qualifying  truths,  and  so  often  makes  the  mere 
partisan,  radical,  sceptic,  or  bigot.  His  understanding 
was  broad,  judicial,  undergirded  with  a  strong  com¬ 
mon-sense  which  regulated  its  judgments.  It  was 


17 


conspicuously  free  from  idiosyncrasies,  hobbies,  crotch¬ 
ets,  extravagances.  He  had  no  sympathy  with  those 
who  followed  their  logic,  as  they  boasted,  “  down 
Niagara,”  even  if  it  hurled  them  athwart  their  moral 
intuitions,  and  other  indubitable  truths.  He  deemed 
it  quite  time  when  some  sharpness  or  smartness  of 
apparent  reasoning  brought  one  to  this  pass,  to  pause, 
and  seek  the  flaw  in  the  premises  or  the  links  of  deduc¬ 
tion  from  them  ;  for  fallacy  there  is,  and  fallacy  there 
must  be,  in  every  process  of  supposed  reasoning,  which 
subverts  the  first  principles  of  all  reason  and  morals. 

The  vast  learning  of  Dr.  Hodge  shows  a  prodigious 
memory  in  due  adjustment  to  his  other  faculties.  Some 
disparage  memory  ;  others  exaggerate  it  as  the  crown¬ 
ing  faculty.  Both  err.  It  needs  to  be  in  due  propor¬ 
tion  to  the  other  faculties.  If  greatly  in  excess,  it 
makes  the  mere  pedant,  capable  only  of  an  awkward 
parade  of  his  stores  of  undigested  knowledge.  If  in 
defect,  the  mind  withers  for  lack  of  nutriment,  for  it 
cannot  get  growth  and  vigor  from  mere  shadowy  forms 
of  thought,  or  shrivelled  spectres  without  the  matter 
and  substance  of  knowledoe. 

Many  think  of  Dr.  Hodge  as  a  dry  reasoner  or 
polemic  without  imagination.  But  in  truth  he  had  a 
very  powerful  imagination.  Without  some  fair  measure 
of  this  constructive  faculty,  which  “  mediates  truth  to 
the  mind  through  beauty,”  no  man,  however  mighty  as 
a  reasoner.  can  put  his  reasonings  in  such  a  costume 
as  to  sway  the  minds  of  his  fellow-men.  In  the  power 
of  apt  comparison  and  telling  illustration  Dr.  Hodge 
was  sometimes  almost  peerless.  By  a  single  metaphor 
he  would  often  flash  a  light  through  a  confused  contro¬ 
versy  which  settled  it.  Many  single  passages  of  this 
kind  could  be  culled  from  his  writings,  which  not  only 
threw  a  glow  and  a  charm  over  them  beyond  the  dry 


i8 


light  of  bare  argumentation,  but,  at  a  single  thrust, 
slew  pages  of  sophisms  and  paralogisms. 

But  it  is  not  a  view  of  his  intellect,  taken  piece¬ 
meal,  or  in  insulated  fragments,  that  best  exhibits  its 
might.  It  is  the  whole  moving,  ‘‘  according  to  the 
effectual  measure  of  the  working  of  every  part,”  in  the 
actual  treatment  of  great  and  varied  subjects,  that  best 
displays  its  imperial  force.  He  so  tasked  it  in  con¬ 
tinuous  application,  as  to  develop  the  fulness  of  its 
strength,  without  that  suicidal  overstraining  of  it,  which 
has  prematurely  wrecked  many  a  noble  mind. 

Beyond  all  doubt  what  invigorated  and  ennobled 
his  intellect,  scarcely  less  than  his  emotional  and  moral 
being,  was  his  implicit  faith  in  and  obedience  to  the 
Word  of  God.  This  reveals  the  Infinite  and  Perfect 
One  beyond  all  other  manifestations  of  Himself ; — even 
Him  in  whom  all  ideals  converge,  from  whom  they 
emerge ;  whose  mind  planned  and  controls  the  universe, 
and  impresses  itself  on  nature,  providence  and  grace  ; 
God  in  the  person  of  the  Incarnate  Son  showing  the 
brightness  of  his  glory  and  the  express  image  of  his 
person,  the  very  fulness  of  His  Godhead  ;  in  whom 
slain,  risen,  reigning.  Head  of  the  church  militant  and 
triumphant.  Head  over  all  things  to  the  church,  all 
things  in  heaven  and  earth,  through  all  time,  in  all 
space,  in  all  worlds,  shall  be  gathered,  headed  up,  into 
one.  Even  thrones,  principalities  and  powers,  angels 
and  archangels,  all  shall  centre  in  Him  as  the  first  and 
the  last,  by  whom  and  lor  whom  are  all  things,  “  that 
in  all  things  he  might  have  the  pre-eminence.”  Now,  to 
receive  this  word  is  to  receive  the  true  principle  of  the 
universe  ;  its  source,  method,  and  end  ;  the  Way,  the 
Truth,  and  the  Life  ;  the  Adorable  Trinity  in  Unity,  “  of 
whom,  through  whom,  to  whom,  are  all  things,  to  whom 
be  glory  forever.” 


19 


It  is  needless  to  argue  that  the  intellect  supremely 
guided  by  this  chart  and  compass,  is  moving  in  the 
o-rand  lines  and  orbits  in  which  the  universe  moves,  and 
which  are  in  the  direction  of  all  truth,  the  pathways 
which  all  truth-finders  tread.  It  stretches  the  mind  to 
the  contemplation  of  the  Infinite  and  Eternal,  the 
grandest  ideals,  character,  and  destiny.  It  is  indeed  to 
the  intellect  just  what  the  compass  is  to  the  navigator, 
that,  wanting  which,  the  wisdom  of  this  world  is  foolish- 
ness  with  God,  and  those  who  profess  themselves  to  be 
wise,  become  fools.  It  is  only  by  celestial  observations, 
Colerido-e  well  observes,  that  terrestrial  charts  can  be 

o 

scientifically  constructed. 

It  was  not  merely  that  he  accepted  or  reverenced 
the  Word  in  general,  but  believing  that  “  all  Scripture 
is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,”  he  accepted  it  in  all  its 
ful  ness,  and  yielded  undoubting  submission  to  its  teach¬ 
ings,  no  matter  how  insolvable  to  human  reason.  This 
gave  it  its  expansive,  tonic,  and  gymnastic  power  over 
his  intellect.  Its  infinite  truths,  became  truth-powers 
in  his  soul,  energizing,  vitalizing  it,  subliming  it  to  an 
ethereal  mould,  and  glassing  it  for  celestial  surveys 
immeasurably  beyond  any  sweep  of  the  unaided  eye. 
Herein  he  did  not  abjure,  but  vastly  exalted  his  reason, 
by  opening  it  to  the  illumination  of  truths  the  most  ex¬ 
alted.  As  a  rational  being,  he  could  not  and  would  not 
accept  contradictions.  But  within  this  limit  he  would, 
as  he  was  wont  to  say,  “  go  blindly,”  in  receiving  those 
revealed  truths,  “  not  seen  ”  or  discernible  bv  mere 
sense,  reason,  or  any  unaided  natural  faculty,  of  which 
faith  was  the  only  “  evidence.”  In  his  own  words: 
“  The  first  and  most  indispensable  condition  of  piety 
is  submission, — blind,  absolute,  entire  submission  of  the 
intellect,  the  conscience,  the  life,  to  God.  This  is  blind, 
but  not  irrational.  It  is  the  submission  of  a  sightless 


20 


child  to  an  all  seeing  Father  ;  of  a  feeble,  beclouded 
intelligence  to  the  Infinite  intelligence.”'*'  He  put  this 
yoke  upon  himself,  so  that  he  might  “  learn  of  Christ 
and  find  rest  to  his  soul.”  So  Abraham  went  out  at 
the  command  of  God,  “not  knowing  whither  he  went.” 
So  if  any  man  “  seemeth  to  be  wise  in  this  world,  let 
him  become  a  fool,  that  he  may  be  wise.”  Thus 
alone  does  the  soul  open  itself  to  the  fulness  of  God, 
the  wealth  of  divine  truth,  and  the  scope  of  divine  illu¬ 
mination.  In  God’s  light  we  see  light.  In  one  of 
those  great  review  articles  which,  once  read,  is  not 
easily  forgotten,  he  thus  rebuked  a  brilliant  genius  as¬ 
suming  the  role  of  reconstructing  systems  of  theology 
which  he  little  understood.  “  Machiavelli  was  accus¬ 
tomed  to  say  there  are  three  classes  of  men  ;  one  who 
see  things  in  their  own  light;  another  who  see  them 
when  they  are  shown  ;  and  a  third  who  cannot  see 

them  even  then.  We  invite  Dr.  B - to  resume  his 

place  with  us  in  the  second  class.  By  a  just  judgment 
of  God,  those  who  uncalled,  aspire  to  the  first,  lapse 
into  the  third.”*)* 

Passino’  now  to  the  emotional  element  in  Dr. 

o 

Hodge’s  character,  we  need  dwell  hardly  for  a  moment 
on  its  blended  strength,  warmth,  gentleness,  delicacy 
and  geniality.  Gigantic  in  his  manhood,  tender  as  a 
woman,  unaffected  and  artless  as  a  child,  never  deaf 
to  the  cry  of  an  infant  or  a  beggar,  he  was  firm  as  the 
mountains  when  any  great  principle  was  at  stake. 
More  than  once  he  lifted  his  voice  and  his  pen  un¬ 
flinchingly  against  overwhelming  majorities,  not  only 
in  the  world,  but  in  the  church  of  his  love,  and  of 
which  he  was  the  pride,  breasting  a  cataract  of  in¬ 
flamed  antagonism,  which  reminded  one  of  “Athan- 

*  Princeton  Review,  Vol.  XXVI.  p.  138. 

\ Princeton  Review,  1849,  p.  262. 


asius  against  the  world.”  His  temperament,  ordinarily 
calm,  easily  became  impassioned,  and  kindled  up  to 
fervors  proportioned  to  the  magnitude  ot  the  occasion 
exciting"  it.  He  was  at  once  charitable  and  catholic,  at 

O 

an  equal  remove  from  indifferentism  and  bigotry. 

We  may  not  wholly  pass  by  those  faculties  which 
are  at  once  intelligent  and  emotional, — conscience  and 
taste.  In  regard  to  the  latter,  while  he  was  quick  to 
perceive  genuine  beauty  and  loathe  the  spurious  pre¬ 
tense  of  it  in  every  sphere,  there  is  time  to  refer  to  it 
only  as  it  evinced  itself  in  his  own  productions.  These 
in  their  kind  were  models.  Whether  in  philosophy,  exe¬ 
gesis,  theology,  or  those  ethico-political  and  miscella¬ 
neous  topics  to  which  his  wondrous  versatility  of  mind 
sometimes  led  him,  he  showed  in  a  remarkable  degree 
the  power  to  meet  that  first  essential  of  beauty, — say¬ 
ing  the  right  thing  in  the  right  place,  and  the  best 
things  in  the  best  manner.  If  in  most  cases  the 
strength  of  his  writings  was  their  conspicuous  feature, 
it  was  when  their  strength  was  beauty,  even  as  strength 
and  beauty  are  in  the  sanctuary.  He  was  severely 
simple  and  chaste  in  his  standards.  Pomp,  swell,  tin¬ 
sel  glitter  of  style  were  his  abomination.  Like  Car¬ 
lyle  he  held  that  affectation  is  the  bane  of  manners 
and  literature,  as  hypocrisy  is  of  religion.  In  the 
region  however  of  sentiment,  and  ot  the  more  strictly 
aesthetic  in  literature,  passages  of  exquisite  beauty  as 
well  as  sublimity,  very  gems,  are  often  found  in  his 
writings.  Among  these  I  may  refer  to  that  epitaph  in 
yonder  cemetery  which  marks  the  resting  place  of  one, 
whose  death  made  an  aching  void  in  his  heart  and  his 
home. 

If  I  may  say  a  word  in  regard  to  his  oratorical 
powers,  which  frequently  appeared  at  some  disadvan¬ 
tage,  owing  in  part  to  an  ordinary  weakness  of  voice 


22 


arising  from  a  physical  malady  which  was  aggra¬ 
vated  by  vehement  utterance  ;  in  part  to  a  habit 
of  insensibly  taking  the  forms  of  thought  and  speech 
of  the  lecture  room  to  the  pulpit  and  before  popular 
audiences  ;  in  part  to  his  constitutional  repugnance  to 
any  affectation  of  fire  in  the  tongue  which  did  not  glow 
in  the  soul ; — many  were  the  occasions  when  the  true 
fire  in  the  soul  did  melt  away  obstacles  of  this  kind, 
and  burst  forth  in  “thoughts  that  breathe  and  words 
that  burn”  into  the  very  heart  of  the  audience.  This 
occurred  frequently,  when  unfettered  by  manuscripts, 
his  soul  flowed  out  so  as  to  electrify  his  hearers,  who 
in  turn  rekindled  the  speaker, — often  in  those  cele¬ 
brated  Sabbath  afternoon  deliverances  in  the  Oratory, 
on  experimental  religion,  in  which  his  tearful  and 
pathetic  utterances  melted  every  listener.  This  often 
occurred  tooinhisfamiliaraddresses  at  our  prayer  meet¬ 
ings.  But  I  well  remember  one  instance  in  which  he 
delivered  a  written  discourse,  at  the  funeral  of  General 
Bayard,  brought  here  for  burial  from  the  battle-field, 
to  a  crowded  audience,  when  he  was  roused  to  a  style 
of  delivery  not  inferior  to  that  of  the  great  masters  of 
eloquence. 

I  will  not  dwell  upon  the  conscience,  always  the 
regal  faculty  in  man  by  right,  if  not  in  fact,  or  repeat 
the  evidence  already  given,  that  it  was  at  the  highest  in 
him  as  to  its  guiding  and  impulsive  power.  He  was 
formed  to  this  standard  alike  by  natural  constitution, 
habitual  training  and  practice,  and  by  the  Word  and 
Spirit  of  God.  The  conscience  was  in  him  the  needle 
that  pointed  to  the  true  pole.  Not  that  he  was  never 
perplexed  or  mistaken.  But  if  it  is  given  to  any  of  us 
to  know  the  right  and  to  do  it,  may  I  not  say,  to  him 
more.  He  discarded  all  theories  which  make  pleasure, 
utility,  or  expediency  the  foundation  of  ethics.  While 


23 


no  man  could  be  more  prudent,  in  the  proper  sphere 
of  prudence,  no  man  could  be  truer  to  himself,  his  con¬ 
science,  and  his  God, 

All  culminated  in  his  Christian  character,  the  fea¬ 
tures  of  which  have  been  so  largely  referred  to,  that 
little  additional  delineation  of  it  is  needed.  His  piety 
was  his  theology  translated  into  life,  and  all  his  theol¬ 
ogy,  theoretical  and  practical,  centred  in  Christ,  who 
was  to  him  the  supreme  object  of  faith,  love  and  devo¬ 
tion,  all  and  in  all.  In  some  ages  of  the  church  Chris¬ 
tian  affection  has  been  more  centred  in  the  Person  of 
Christ.  In  others  it  has  been  more  consciously  directed 
to  his  saving"  offices.  In  Dr.  Hodge,  it  was  directed  to 
Christ  alike  and  pre-eminently  in  both  aspects.  His 
glorious  Person,  and  His  glorious  offices.  For  him  to 
live  was  Christ,  to  die  was  gain,  because,  as  he  said  in 
his  last  known  religious  utterance,  “it  was  to  depart  and 
be  with  Christ  ;  to  be  with  him  was  to  see  Him  ;  to  see 
Him  was  to  be  like  Him.”  His  consummate  aspiration 
was  to  be  in  the  presence  of  Him  who  is  at  once  the 
image  of  the  Invisible  God,  and  the  first-born  among 
many  brethren.  He  was  devout  without  fanaticism,  con¬ 
scientious  without  blind  scrupulosity,  faithful  in  that 
which  was  least  because  faithful  from  principle  ;  not 
neglecting  the  weightier  matters  of  the  law  in  a  morbid 
devotion  to  petty  punctilios,  having  his  conversation  in 
heaven  while  quick  with  wholesome  affection  and  con¬ 
cern  for  every  genuine  earthly  interest,  firm  in  adhe¬ 
rence  to  principle,  but  kindly  and  loving  in  all  human 
relationships.  Indeed  there  was  nothing  pertaining  to 
humanity,  from  the  prattle  of  the  babe  to  the  shock 
of  contending  armies,  the  revolutions  of  empires,  and 
the  fortunes  of  the  church,  which  did  not  command  his 
interest  and  attention.  He  felt  himself  a  man,  and  that 
nothing  human  was  alien  from  him.  The  benignity  of 


24 


his  temper  and  life  was  the  true  reflex  of  his  theology 
on  its  practical  side.  Whatever  imaginations  to  the 
contrary  as  to  the  tone  of  that  theology  any  may  have 
entertained,  its  keynote  and  central  factor  was  love, 
love,  LOVE. 

Beginning  his  Christian  life  in  youth,  growing  in 
grace  and  knowledge  of  God  till  ripened  through  a 
length  of  years  vouchsafed  only  to  the  fewest,  gathered 
to  the  heavenly  garner  as  “  a  shock  of  corn  ready  in 
its  season,”  he  died  in  the  assured  hope  of  the  resur¬ 
rection  of  the  body  and  the  life  everlasting,  through 
Him  who  is  the  resurrection  and  the  life.  He  was  as 
good  as  he  was  great,  and  no  small  part  of  his  greatness 
was  his  goodness.  Indeed  he  held  that  there  was  no 
mystic  art  in  doing  good  ;  that  the  best  way  to  do  good 
was  to  be  good.  Even  so  the  teaching  of  his  great 
life  is  that  the  way  to  a  great  manhood  is  to  do  great 
and  man-worthy  things,  and  this  because  they  are  such. 

If  we  cannot  equal  the  mighty  dead  who  yet  speak 
to  us  from  their  “sceptred  urns,”  we  may  at  least  be 
inspired  by  their  great  examples,  and  try  to  imitate 
their  excellence,  so  far  as  imitable,  while  we  cherish  and 
do  honor  to  their  memory.  There  is  no  more  ignoble 
trait,  or  sure  sign  of  degeneracy,  than  to  forget  or  lose 
reverence  for  the  great  and  good  who  have  departed 
from  us.  “  Mark  the  perfect  man,  behold  the  up¬ 
right,  FOR  TFIE  END  OF  THAT  MAN  IS  PEACE,” 


-  Date  Due 


FE  h-m 


